Although she is a state worker, Nancy Christman of Kunkletown yesterday had no intention of joining a lunchtime protest over the state budget crisis in front of the welfare office in Stroudsburg.

She was there to apply for food stamps.

"I'm here by coincidence," the PennDOT equipment operator told the group of about 25 employees of the state welfare and unemployment offices. "I'm getting food stamps to feed my kids."

In Easton, seven PennDOT workers went the same route. Frustrated over Friday's payless payday, they took matters into their own hands by picking up applications for welfare benefits.

Ironically, most of the 65 non-supervisory workers at the welfare office weren't in. They, too, didn't get paychecks Friday and reportedly called in sick.

Christman and the others are among nearly 53,000 state workers who are looking at a second week without pay because of the budget impasse in Harrisburg.

Throughout the Lehigh Valley and elsewhere, hard-pressed state employees are trying to adapt. Many are faced with borrowing money or seeking welfare aid to make ends meet. Some, in protest, are picketing their offices or calling in sick.

Christman, a single mother of three, said she received her last check July 12 and needs food stamps to feed her children.

"Money I can live without, but I can't get by without food," she said. "My children have to eat."

Even some Monroe County welfare workers are planning to apply for welfare benefits, said Noreen Snyder, shop steward for the Pennsylvania Social Services Union in Stroudsburg.

At the Lehigh County Assistance Office in Allentown, about 20 of nearly 110 employees called in sick yesterday.

"Today is the first day I've seen this," said Ray Schlechter, the office's executive director. All the absent employees were caseworkers, he said.

Although Montgomery County has been spared sick-outs, some welfare caseworkers are beginning to relate to their clients.

"We're almost in the same conditions," said Mary Louise Williams, a caseworker in Norristown. "It's difficult coming into a job when you've lost control.

"We have a bad lack of staff. Things are bad for us now, but we still feel sorry for these people (the clients). It makes you aware that there are people in worse conditions than us."

Bucks County welfare workers have gotten used to going without pay.

"We're doing the job as usual," said Robert Longwell, a manager at the assistance office in Doylestown Township, which serves Central and Upper Bucks. "This happens every year, and it's not a new thing for us. Many of our employees planned for it."

Some of the PennDOT workers who showed up at the welfare office in Easton said they had called in sick. They said they know some disciplinary action could be in store.

Mike Ninno of Bangor said he and his fellow workers are on a two-week pay schedule, and no pay on Friday has hurt.

"They didn't even tell us that, if they do sign the budget, the checks that are behind will be a week or two (in coming)," said Ninno. "Nothing was said to us."

"We live paycheck to paycheck," said Paul Landy of Bethlehem.

The men said their supervisors, including Northampton County Manager Bob Wilson, saw them at the welfare office. So why did some call in sick and risk disciplinary action?

"Just to prove a point. I felt I had to," said Bob Wilhelm of Nazareth.

Wilhelm said he was recently sent to Harrisburg for heavy-equipment training, but that, because of the budget crisis, he had to provide all his own expense money, a $300 tab for three weeks. "They're telling me they will pay it when the budget is settled," he said.

"I've been borrowing everything. I'm using my credit card for everything ... because I was already broke last Wednesday."

The men said most of the workers at their Slate Belt station called off sick yesterday. PennDOT spokesman James Bergmaier said he was not aware of any widespread employee absenteeism at PennDOT installations throughout the Lehigh Valley.

In Stroudsburg, carrying placards reading "We want our paychecks," state workers gathered under umbrellas to hear Neil Brown, a business agent for the Social Services Union, voice their complaints.

Brown talked tough about legislators playing politics with the budget while senior citizens suffer in understaffed nursing homes. He said the budget woes also hurt needy and abused children, who depend on state programs for assistance and protection.

Brown said the legislators had a July 1 deadline to pass a new budget and failed to do so. If state welfare workers missed such a deadline, he said, they would be reprimanded and fired. He said that's what should happen to state legislators.

"We will remember in November," Brown said.

In a steady rain, Brown led the small but vocal group in a few short slogans such as "One, two, three, four -- get the budget off the floor; five, six, seven, eight -- Come on, Bob, negotiate."

At the assistance office in Allentown, Schlechter, the executive director, said he hopes the sick-out won't continue.

"I share the workers' frustrations because I am a state employee, too, and I'm not being paid, either," he said. "But this serves only to increase the workload to fellow employees."